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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26234923">Stay Little a While Longer (Happy Birthday Dedue)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kabieee/pseuds/Kabieee'>Kabieee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Our Garden, Our Castle (Dimidue) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baking, Birthday Fluff, Canon Universe, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Post-War</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:47:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,370</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26234923</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kabieee/pseuds/Kabieee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dedue and his daughter bake together on his birthday ♡</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Dedue Molinaro</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Our Garden, Our Castle (Dimidue) [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749325</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stay Little a While Longer (Happy Birthday Dedue)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. MOLINARO I LOVE YOU!!! I didn't have a lot of time to write a longer fic but this little ficlet is very sweet, I think ♡ This is apart of Our Garden, Our Castle, which is the Dimidue sister series to my Sylvix fic Together! My Dimidue babies are Isabel and Lambert, who are about five years apart (Lambert is only four months old in this fic ;w;) They're a bit more established in Together, so please give it a read if you'd like more of a foundation for this universe! </p><p>I hope you enjoy as much as I do~ I wanted Dedue spending time with his favorite people on his birthday ♡</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Princess Isabel Blaiddyd Molinaro stood upon a stool in the palace’s kitchen, carefully measuring out flour into a cup. Her bright blue eyes nervously drifted over to her father, who was calmly watching her with a smile on his face. He nodded at her softly, encouraging her to continue.</p><p>“Do not forget, my little lamb, that you will be able to get rid of whatever you do not need if you get too much.” Dedue held the container steadily in his large hands for his daughter.</p><p>Isabel nodded and took a deep breath, digging the cup down into the powdered substance. A large rounded mound came back when she pulled it out. Her father already had a butter knife waiting for her little hands.</p><p>“Make sure it is filled in properly,” he reminded her gently, moving the container of flour away from the cutting board before them. He happily watched Isabel pat it down and then slide the top off with the knife, catching the excess on the container lid. “Perfect, my darling. That was so good.”</p><p>“Thank you, Daddy,” Isabel grinned, taking the cup and dumping it into the bowl that sat just off the cutting board. “I love baking with you! I wish Lambert joined us sometimes…”</p><p>Dedue chuckled and scraped the excess flour into the container before returning the lid. “Lambert is still very small, Isabel. But I know when he’s bigger, he will love to join us in the kitchen. I look forward to that day as well.”</p><p>“I think we should get the little carrier Papa wears for him!” Dedue’s five-year-old daughter giggled as she reached for the recipe book her father had spread out on the counter. “You could wear Bertie on your chest, like Papa, and he could watch us! Don’t you think it’d be fun if he was here too, Daddy?”</p><p>Dedue smiled at Isabel and nodded, touching her cheek softly. She had taken to her infant brother better than Dedue and Dimitri could have ever hoped for. Isabel loved being with him, helping her fathers feed and even change him. She always brought him toys whenever he cried, and loved having him by her side during the day when Dimitri and Dedue were busy with royal business. It made both of them prouder than just about everything.</p><p>The king’s husband gave their daughter a kiss on the forehead, giving her a hug before looking back at the recipe book. “Do you remember which other dry ingredients we need, my lamb?”</p><p>“Yes, Daddy,” Isabel smiled, carefully turning on the stool she stood upon and pointing at the cabinet just above her head. “We need… sugar and baking powder!”</p><p>“If I did not know better, I would think you have been studying this book,” Dedue said proudly, retrieving the ingredients from the cabinet and measuring out how much they needed.</p><p>“I wanted this to be perfect today, Daddy! I know I bake with you all the time, but I wanted to show you how much I’ve learned from you. This is my most favorite time… when it’s just you and me in here.”</p><p>Dedue stopped for a moment, the feeling of love and pride for his daughter making his chest ache. Everything Isabel did amazed him. Even at such a young age, she prided herself on the ability to braid her long white hair, another skill she had learned from Dedue. As he looked at her now, she had done multiple strands just as his sister and mother had in his childhood. She had watched Dedue baking and cooking in the palace’s kitchen since her infancy, asking him to teach her how as soon as she began talking. Just a week before, she had surprised her fathers in bed with a sweet bun trio for breakfast, perfectly baked (with the help of Uncle Ashe, of course).</p><p>More important than her skills, by a longshot, was her capacity for love. Dedue and Dimitri had never known a child so loving and strong despite only being five years old. Isabel frequently asked her fathers if she could bring her toys to the orphanage in the capitol, and to visit with Dedue whenever he delivered handmade scarves there. She fed the stray cats that lived near the palace, nearly turning them into royal pets with how often they frequented the door outside the basement kitchen waiting for her.</p><p>The king and his husband knew they had never been blessed more in their lives than they were when their first child was born. That blessing only spread the more she grew before their eyes, a phenomenon both her fathers agreed was happening far too fast. To hear such a candid confession from his firstborn made the Duscurian man feel weightless.</p><p>“Izzie,” Dedue said, her nickname bringing a wide smile to her face. “These moments are so very precious to me. I love you so, so much. I too look forward to them whenever we have a moment to be alone.”</p><p>“I know I said I wanted Lambert and Papa here, too… And I do! But I love being in the kitchen with my Daddy. I want to get better so one day, you don’t have to do the cooking! You can sit down and relax and watch me!”</p><p>“I’ll never stop cooking for my Princess,” Dedue reassured her with a smile, handing his daughter the bowl with the wet ingredients inside. She carefully took it and poured them into the dry, picking up her favorite mixing spoon with a confident look at her father. “Stay my sweet little Izzie for just a while longer. Let me cook for you,” he held the bowl steadily as she began stirring, “let us have our moments here in this kitchen. Do not grow up too fast, my darling.”</p><p>Isabel made a silly, scrunched up face, looking down at her short stature and giggling. “I don’t know if we need to worry about me <em>growing</em>, Daddy! I’m not tall like you and Papa, yet! But I think I’m okay with being little for a while longer…”</p><p>Dedue and Isabel finished blending the ingredients, the father gently taking the spoon towards the end to showcase the decadent sight of the batter cascading down into the mixture in the bowl. His daughter watched in amazement, furthering the joy spreading throughout his body while he spent one-on-one time with her. Moments like these were a little difficult now with Lambert, who was only a few months old and needed quite a bit of his and Dimitri’s attention. But their darling girl took it wonderfully, patiently awaiting the moments during the day when they could give her their undivided attention.</p><p>After putting the cake in the oven, Dedue picked up his daughter and strongly carried her back up to the royal bedchamber. His husband, his beautiful Dimitri, held Lambert softly in his arms and was feeding him his bottle on their bed. Dimitri’s face lit up when they returned, smiling at Isabel and motioning for her to join him on his lap. Dedue stood at the foot of it watching them, his <em>family</em>, needing to grip the footboard from the quiet emotion bubbling up inside him. It was moments like these that had made their suffering during the war worth it. Seeing Dimitri happy and healthy while holding their children made Dedue wonder if all of his good luck and happiness had already been spent, unsure of how his life could get any better than it was in this moment.</p><p>“Dedue, my beloved, come join us. I’m certain someone from the house staff could get the cake out of the oven…” Dimitri beckoned his husband to the bed with a gentle smile, looking over at his side over their daughter’s head.</p><p>Dedue nodded with a grin, removing his boots and settling down on top of the covers. His large, strong arms wrapped around his husband and daughter effortlessly, his head resting on Dimitri’s shoulder with a kiss to his cheek.</p><p>“Did you have a good birthday, Daddy?” Isabel asked him, making grabbing gestures at Dimitri when it came time to burp Lambert.</p><p>“I can think of no better birthday I have ever had, my heart.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Follow me on twitter! @setethstiddies ♡ And if you liked, I read and scream over every comment and appreciate every kudos ♡♡</p></blockquote></div></div>
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